last resort
by tatty ted
Summary: Adam meets Fay, a mysterious woman with a secret. Will he ever discover what she's running from? - —Adam/Fay, crossover with "Inspector Wexford"


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**last resort  
**_if I go crazy, will you still call?_

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He first meets her October third, down by the canal that flows into the city centre. He's stood on one side, she's stood on the other. He's immediately drawn to her because she's pretty and slightly mysterious. He finds enough courage inside to go over and say hello but she stares him in the eye, apologises and tells him she can't talk to him.

He sees her again that month, October twenty-third at the same canal but a metre or two along the bank. She's not on her own this time, there's a girl aged about three. The girl runs through the overgrown grass playing wildly like she's free. He watches as her mother stares in the water, probably wishing something away. He approaches her, again with a smile and says; "I'm Adam, do I not get to know your name?"

She stares. She bites her chapped lips nervously and he notices the purple bruise that's formed on her cheek. She eventually whispers, "I'm Fay, come on Sanchia we're leaving." She takes the girl by the hand and they had off in the opposite direction, leaving Adam alone with his thoughts once again.

He doesn't see her at all during November or December.

January thirteenth, a Friday, he goes to a bar. He's alone and feeling blue, feeling slightly homesick and missing Harry's grave back in Holby. He wonders if it was wise to go out on a day that held such a negative omen but he decided he was just being paranoid, nothing bad would happen. He sees a couple arguing by the door, the man grabbing the woman roughly by the arm. He intervenes, receives a black eye and a broken nose for interfering in things they don't concern him.

He discovers the woman is his woman, the one from the canal, the one he hasn't seen in a while. He jokes that she's his knight in shining armour but she doesn't reply, only laughs. She stays though, she cleans him up because really it's the least she can do when he protected her. He kisses her at the end of the night as a why of saying thanks but she doesn't respond, she doesn't find him attractive.

He sees her the nineteenth, the twentieth and twenty-first but they don't communicate with one another.

February passes by without a sighting or conversation. When March arrives he doesn't know if she's still living here, in London. On the fourth of March he's busy at work, the department relatively quiet nothing major happening. He walks into one of the cubicles and gets the shock of his life when he sees her there. She's lying on the bed black and blue. She freezes when she notices who the Doctor is but he doesn't mention anything.

"What happened?"

She fumbles, twisting the wedding ring around her finger nervously. She answers that she's been clumsy and fallen down the stairs. He sighs and it doesn't go unnoticed by Fay. He can't stand men who raise their hand to women, especially not their wives.

"Fay, that is your name isn't it?" He asks and she nods. He knew Sarah was probably an alias to stop her from getting caught and seeking medical advice. He wonders why she stays with a man who's abusive but he knows the answer, he knows they've probably twisted her mind. Told her everything's her fault, nobody will believe her, if she leaves she'll never see her children. He'd come across a lot of domestic violence suffers in his job.

"He did this didn't he?" She doesn't answer and he touches her arm ever so gently. She flinches away from his touch and he takes her wrist gently, looks her in the eye and promises without missing a breath, "I promise I will never, ever hurt you."

She returns home on the eighth but leaves him a letter with a kiss on it.

March goes, April arrives and he finds himself thinking of her a lot. He wonders if she's still with him, her abusive husband and whether or not she's still alive. He knows abuse only ends if one of them dies, usually the victim, the woman, the weaker one. He gets a phone call on the seventeenth completely out of the blue. It's Fay on the other end and she's crying and the question of how she got his number goes unanswered, her welfare is a priority.

She moves in with Adam on the eighteenth, brings along her three children, two boys and a girl. She informs him she won't stay for long, only until the end of the week when she gets herself settled. He tells her she can stay for as long as she wants.

She moves out on the tenth May to a house that overlooks the canal. He gives her enough money for the deposit and one months rent. He tells her he wants her to be settled before she even considers repaying him. She kisses his cheek, whispers thank you and fails to notice how his heart skipped a beat at her touch.

He confesses his love twelve days later on the twenty-second of May. He kisses her and this time she responds. He takes off her clothes and runs his fingers down every bruise, cut and scar her husband ever inflicted upon her, kissing every single one of them. He makes love to her gently, refusing to be rough even when she tells him to go faster, he won't. He wants the moment to last, he wants to show her he will never hurt her.

They sleep tangled in the bed sheets, her head on his chest.

After that they start a relationship, taking baby steps because she's still too afraid. He moves in not long afterwards, them both realising it's what they wanted. On June third, her divorce comes through. She's happy to finally be free from a man who did nothing but hurt her. He proposes that evening at dinner, asking her to become his wife.

She accepts his proposal.

They marry July third, she discovers she's pregnant that following month and for the whole month of September, they playfully argue over names, colours of bedroom and decorations. Fourth of October, he visits the canal where it all started. He finds himself wondering how different his life may of been had he not have met Fay that day one year ago.

She comes up behind him, snakes her arms around him and kisses his neck. She wonders why he's so quiet and whispers in her ear; "What are you thinking about?"

He smiles, "The day we met." And as they both stared opposite the canal, where it all begin, they concluded that there was somebody out there for everyone. One year ago he had nothing and now he had the most amazing wife, three beautiful step-children and a child on the way. And all he did was preserver, he got the girl in the end even if it wasn't an easy road to travel down.

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**jottings** / if you like it enough to favourite, please leave a review:3


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